Maker Faire 2013

Our Young Maker's year culminates in the Bay Area Maker Faire. This year only four of our families attended, and only Leo exhibited; but it remains the part of the year we most look forward to.

Maker Faire is a celebration of both skill and creativity in almost any area you can think of, among them—

costuming:

needle felting (yes, that dino was completely felted by hand!):

and light sculpture:

—as well as food, games, bicycles, art cars, arduino, 3D printers and more.

Every year the Maker Faire has attracted more and more people. Perhaps it is understandable, then, that the exhibition hall has an increasing number of companies displaying their products and startups looking for funding, and that the Maker Shed now sells more packaged kits than raw supplies.

But outside, and particularly in the South Lot, there are still many spectacularly homemade projects.

a dalek:

a bejeweled mosaic spaceship:

a walking geodesic pod:

 a homebuilt submarine:

a motorized teapot:

We were especially happy to see Make's own version of The Towel prominently displayed in the center of the exhibition hall. It was exactly a year ago at the faire that this very plane was featured on the cover of Make magazine and started us on the process of our own builds.

 Leo's plane also hung all day in the Young Maker's exhibit area:

 His end-of-the-day exhibit drew attention from young and old alike:

Thanks to the Maker Faire's inspirational atmosphere, we are already talking about ideas for next year. Robots? Vehicles? 3d Printers? Group project? Individual projects? It's fun to think about all the possibilities.

Meanwhile, here is a short video of some of the random sights from BA Maker Faire 2013. Our hats are off to all these makers for their individual visions, and for their incredible work to see those visions through.